Fagin
Julius Antoine "Fagin" Dale, sometimes known as "Jules", was the chief crime lord of "the Gutter", the desperately poor southern section of Tarsonis City, Tarsonis. He appeared in the novel StarCraft: Ghost: Nova. Fagin was muscular, had a shaved head that "went out of style ten years ago" and wore a full beard. He wasn't tall, but seemed to have a presence that made him seem the tallest person in the room. He had at least two large "no-necked" bodyguards, more as a status symbol than anything else. Fagin was intelligent, charismatic, a skilled crime lord and manipulator, and something of a student of human behavior. According to the telepathic November Terra, he was sane. He kept twelve people (he never bothered to name them), male and female, as sex slaves. He also never bothered to remember the names of his bodyguards. Fagin was very careful about his personal security, always keeping his P220 on-hand. Behind the strong doors of his hideout (which he didn't keep a secret) was a force-field generator, controlled by a device he always wore on him. Biography Fagin used to make a living as a "pavement wrestler", which is when he started shaving his head and filed his teeth. He used to serve as a "speed loader" for a crime lord known as "Grin" (because he never smiled) but quickly made a reputation as the brains behind Grin's "muscle". Fagin replaced Grin as a local crime lord by murdering him. He eventually defeated the other crime lords and became the undisputed leader of criminal activity in "the Gutter". Afterwards he started calling himself "Fagin" after the villain in Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist". Before the destruction of Korhal, Fagin had a contact there who could provide him with very new drugs. After the Terran Confederacy destroyed Korhal, Fagin made a donation to the Sons of Korhal simply because he was so angry. Fagin had other contacts, including even among the Tarsonis Police Force (whom he frequently bribed) and the Confederate military. A Secret Acquisition Fagin's life changed when he received a report of a tall young woman appearing in the Gutter who attacked two of his hoodlums with what seemed to be telekinetic powers. He pretended not to believe she could use telekinesis. He ordered Markus Ralian to abduct her while he pondered what to do about this development. When he was ready, he had her brought in front of him. She identified herself as Nova. He immediately noticed that she was richly dressed, causing him to believe she might be worth a good ransom. However, she told him that her family was dead and so she couldn't be ransomed. He told her that she would become his personal intelligence agent and assassin, but she said she'd rather die first - she had undergone a horrible event and was suffering from mental trauma. He couldn't threaten her with death, so instead he ordered her out. He believed she could be starved into submission (so he ordered the shopkeepers not to allow her any food). Before leaving, she taunted him by telling him that his twelve lovers didn't love him (but were afraid) and that one of his trusted lieutenants would kill him, but even that didn't frighten Fagin. He believed that would happen since that's how he came to power in the first place. Five days later, he discovered startling information about her - one of her family members (her sister, Clara Terra) was alive. Unfortunately, the Terras were one of the Confederate Old Families, a powerful aristrocratic group. Attempting to ransom Nova would be suicidal, as the Old Families would simply destroy him rather than negotiate. He also noticed her stealing food. He hired his top hitman, the drug-addled "Pitcher" to kill her, but Nova simply destroyed the Pitcher's mind. While waiting for a successful report from the Pitcher, he contacted a Supply Sergeant Morwood of the Confederate military and received a psi-screen from him in a package. The psi-screen would make him immune to Nova's telepathy. Furthermore, he arranged for an ambush of Nova, and used children as a screen of hostages. Fagin's psi-screen was manually activated and could inflict terrible pain on a telepath; between the torture and the hostages he made Nova into his slave. Madness of Ambition Six months after capturing Nova, Fagin seemed to be going crazy. One example of his madness was calling in a pair of drug dealers who were lovers for a "random audit" performed by Nova. Nova reported that they weren't ripping Fagin off and that they were lovers. Fagin replied that everyone knew that and then shot one of the drug dealers because they were thinking of making love rather than working (or so Fagin put it). Later, Markus Ralian came by and had a secret talk with Nova. He ordered the corpse of the drug dealer to be put into the alley and not be hidden. He hoped that the police would find the body and eventually catch Fagin, but Nova told him it wouldn't work. (Ralian himself believed it would't work... but he wanted it to work.) Later Fagin gave orders to his daughter, Dani. However, as she spoke on a communicator, Fagin realized that he had thought she was Sam and shot her "for pretending to be Sam". He called for Sam and asked him to bring bullets and then call Nova. When Nova arrived, she knew about the bullets, causing Fagin to fear as she could read his mind despite his psi-screen. Nova told him she overheard him telling Sam to get bullets; Fagin used the torture setting on her. Nova, after recovering from the pain, told him that she was making his position worse, not better, and that a trusted lieutenant would someday kill him. Fagin said telepaths couldn't predict the future and told her to go away. Markus Ralian learned something disturbing about the psi-screen that Fagin constantly wore - it should not be worn longer than the regulation seven hours, as wearing it longer could cause memory loss. Fagin had been wearing it for six months! Ralian decided to test the theory. He asked Fagin about their problems shipping hab from Halcyon - Fagin told him that he killed a member of the Halcyon crime organization who was "planning something" as a favor to the Halcyon organization after Nova read something incriminating from his mind. The "ungrateful" organization refused to continue to ship hab. When Fagin asked where would they get their hab from, Fagin told him to stop bothering him, they would get it from Halcyon like they always did. This confirmed to Ralian that Fagin's memory problems were extremely severe. He tried to convince Fagin to remove the device, but Fagin told him that if he did so, Nova would instantly fry his brain. Shortly thereafter, Ghost Wrangler Malcolm Kelerchian, hunting for the powerful psychic Nova, "visited" Fagin's headquarters. He identified himself as a Confederacy government agent, and asked Fagin to hand Nova over, otherwise he would unleash a Confederate Marine division known as the "Annihilators". Fagin replied with bullets, which bounced off of Kelerchian's forcefield. Unable to learn from this simple encounter, Fagin continued firing until he ran out of bullets. Nova decided the moment was right. She used her telepathic powers to force Markus Ralian to draw his gun and shoot Fagin repeatedly in the back. She had predicted Fagin would be killed by one of his lieutenants, when in fact he was killed by two (Ralian made no attempt to resist Nova's control). Almost immediately thereafter, the Annihilators charged the compound, killing many of Fagin's minions and causing the building to collapse on Markus Ralian, killing him too. Then the Zerg arrived. Fagin's organization met its doom from multiple directions. Followers As the leader of a fairly large criminal organization, Fagin has many minions who report to him. Known followers include; Major Followers *Tyrus Fallit *Francee *Harold *Jo-Jo *Manfred *Tenilee *Morwood *"The Blonde" *"The Pitcher" *Markus Ralian *Wolfgang Minor Followers *Vic Cox *Geena Ralian *Lonnie Ursitti (corrupt police officer) *Andres *Andy *Billy *Dion *Diva *Elizabeth *Evan *Freddie *Grotto *Guy *Ian *Jewel *Matt *Preach *Ryon *Seer *Mandy Gun Nuts These four thugs were ordered to bring a lot of guns to Fagin's headquarters and fend off Nova. *Hieronymous "Jonesy" Jones *Elois "Mags" Magwitch *Richard "Poppo" Raman *Mick "Two-Bit" Stanislawski Fagin's Kids *Dani *Orvy *Sam References *DeCandido, Keith R. A. (November 28, 2006). StarCraft: Ghost: Nova. Simon & Schuster (Pocket Star). ISBN 0-7434-7134-2. *2006-02-06. Nova Backstory. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-09-30. Category: Terran characters